Why Georgians Should Care About Hydraulic Fracturing

8th Annual Georgia Environmental Conference August 21-23, 2013

Josh Becker

Alston & Bird LLP

What are we going to cover?

•  What is hydraulic fracturing? •  Who does what about it? •  Why is it controversial?

What exactly is hydraulic fracturing?

•  The process of creating fissures, or fractures, in underground formations to allow natural gas and oil to flow. –  Easy as:

1. Drilling a well into the shale. 2. Pumping a mixture of water, proppant (natural or manufactured), and

chemical additives under high pressure into the well to create fractures in the shale.

What does it look like?

Illustration: Nicolle Rager Fuller, Science News

100 years of supply

Georgia is on the map…

In more ways than one…

Is this a whole new technology?

•  Not even close: –  Sometime before 1903 – Used at Mt. Airy Quarry, North

Carolina to separate granite blocks from bedrock. –  1947 – Stanolind Oil conducted the first experimental

fracturing in the Hugoton field located in southwestern Kansas. The treatment utilized napalm (gelled gasoline) and sand from the Arkansas River.

–  1949 – First proven commercial use by Halliburton.

How is hydraulic fracturing regulated?

Water –  Water withdrawals: State water law –  Contamination: Clean Water Act (CWA) and state law

Air Emissions –  Clean Air Act (CAA) and state law

Fracking Fluid –  Fluid injection: Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) exempt from the Underground Injection Control

(UIC) Program –  Chemical disclosure: Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA), Toxic

Substances Control Act (TSCA), and state law –  Flowback handling and storage: Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) and state law –  Flowback disposal: SDWA, Clean Water Act (CWA), and state law

Well Integrity –  State oil and gas regulations

Response to contamination of any type caused by gas extraction activities is regulated under federal laws (RCRA, CERCLA, CWA) and state laws

Heavy emphasis on state regulation

What’s in the fracking fluid?

•  No federal requirements for companies to disclose the chemical contents of its fracking fluids.

•  Exempt from Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act (“EPCRA”).

•  States have the authority to require disclosure of contents. •  Water makes up 98.5% of most fracking fluid. •  About 1% consists of one of many different types of proppant. •  The type of proppant chosen for each job depends on the geology. •  The rest of the fluid, the remaining fraction of a percent, differs

from site-to-site and from company-to-company.

Fracfocus.com

Why is hydraulic fracturing controversial?

•  Hydraulic fracturing is targeted from several directions. •  What are the primary concerns?

–  Surface water contamination –  Ground water contamination (drinking water aquifers) –  Depletion of water supply –  Earthquakes –  Land impacts –  Adverse health effects in humans and farm animals

Distance between aquifer and fractures

Typical theories for hydraulic fracturing cases

•  Methane migration •  Groundwater contamination •  Air emissions •  Earthquakes •  Explosions •  Attempts to invalidate oil and gas leases •  Challenges to EPA

Conduct challenged

•  Well construction –  Improper design – Negligent execution (particularly re: well casing)

•  Spills •  Containment (e.g., holding ponds) •  Disposal (e.g., injection wells) •  Explosions •  Earthquake inducement •  Ordinary operations